Water Valves & Patrick's Birthday

We started off our Martin Luther King Jr school holiday with painting. I had thought they'd just paint for a bit, but they ended up painting all morning. We were still recuperating from the crud we had caught, so we spent the day in between projects and indoor activities.

 

 

I had a free bakery item at Panera for my birthday; so the younger two and I headed over to split a cinnamon scone 3 ways.

Amelia got really obsessed with her Little Passports states' books. She was working on them around the clock.

Austin tackled this borrowed 100 piece puzzle alone one morning. He did it 100% solo in about 45 minutes. 

 

While I was working upstairs, these two got in their complete dress-up glory, pretending to be royals.

 

Austin accompanied Dad to an allergy shot; he enjoyed the kids' waiting area.

All healthy by Friday night, we headed to a Peruvian restaurant for a belated birthday dinner for Mom. We ordered our 4 favorite dishes and split them. Everyone over-ate, and there were plenty of leftovers for the weekend. 

On Saturday morning, we heard some loud noises outside. The water company knocked on the door to tell us that our water would be off for a few hours in the middle of the day while they replaced a main water valve that was leaking. So much fun for the kids to watch throughout the day. 

 

Dad took the kids to the park to burn off some energy. Austin is drawn to large sticks.

The new library book haul kept them very entertained throughout the weekend. 

 

To celebrate Patrick's birthday, he made wings and ribs. He requested pie for his birthday dessert.

 

We sure love this man and are so thankful for him. 

Leftover pie on top of yogurt for breakfast the next morning = yes, please!

Puzzles, Snow & Tent City

This girl is so proud of her Savvy calendar!

Our first weekend at home started off with puzzles and a pj day! 

 

Daddy & Austin had it finished by Sunday night.

Even Colleen insists on listening to audio books now. 

Daddy left for his first trip of the year, and we got hit with our first round of sickness. So while snot and coughs abounded, we managed to pull out all the favorites.

Painting time! 

His goal is to wear his belt and boots daily. Gym gets in the way 3x each week. 

To finish up our study of Brazil in his Little Passports box, we made the dessert recipe included. Austin was super excited to make these little chocolate treats. 

 

Showing off their "Granddaddy cream" that we special ordered to convince them to use it more in this super-dry weather. 

Austins Bible study teacher sent me this photo of him doing the relay game wearing his listening ears. 

We had a bit of snow one morning, and Austin races upstairs to get dressed and then comes down begging, "Mom, I need black paper and a magnifying glass RIGHT NOW." When I asked him why, he replied that he wanted to study snowflakes. I was shocked that he remembered the book we read last winter about Wilson Bentley, the first photographer of snowflakes. 

Bubbles in the garage in our pjs. 

Austin then BEGGED to shovel the driveway. I tried to persuade him to wait since it would warm up and melt off later that afternoon, but he insisted. He did a pretty good job! 

Austin's class had earned a "bring a friend" day at school. His teacher sent this photo of all the kids and their stuffed animals. We are so blessed by his small class size this year.

So happy even while sick. 

So my birthday (on a Friday) this year was a bust in terms of health again. I came down sick along with Austin from whatever Colleen had had all week. But thankfully Patrick had arrived home from his work trip the night before. We canceled our birthday dinner plans and did our usual homemade pizza. But the kids did have fun singing to me throughout the day. On Saturday, Patrick and the kids brought me flowers and cannolis with the promise of a birthday dinner re-do when I felt better.

This card that Amelia made me at school gave me a good chuckle. It's a true representation of age-of-mamas around here. 

The big kids earned a night in tents over the weekend. They did a great job, going right to sleep and listening to their audiobooks in the morning. 

  

Then the next day, we popped up the 3rd tent for Colleen to play in. It was a tent city in our living room.

We enjoyed the Peanuts puzzle so much that a friend gave us 2 - 100piece puzzles to try over the weekend. Amelia and Austin did the first in under an hour. It was a fun "I spy" type puzzle. 

Back to Routine & UV Light

As soon as we got home, Amelia asked if we could "make her hair curly". So we set out to braid it all for her first day back at school.

 

Just before we left for Alabama, our washing machine started spraying oil from the center. We debated trying to fix it or buy a new one; all the New Year deals swayed us to go ahead and purchase a new one. When it was delivered on Monday, the delivery guy informed me that they weren't going to hook it up since we didn't buy new hoses. So what's a mama with many, many loads of laundry to do? Hook it up herself!

Colleen and Austin were great assistants. And it worked correctly the first time! Wahoo!

While we had done all the indoor activities with Austin's last kiwi crate weeks ago, we had not had a sunny enough day to do the outdoor activities. (The crate was UV Light themed.) So on this sunny cold day, we spent the entire morning experimenting with different things that might block UV light. Austin was thrilled beyond what I expected. In most of these photos, he's pointing out that the UV-sensitive beads changed colors in the sun, but the ones inside the clothes/glasses did not.

 

Coating a bag in sunscreen showed us that sunscreen only partially protects you. 

 

Loving his new blanket from his class's teaching assistant.

This girl immediately returned to our "special time" routine as soon as Austin got on the bus. Some days she chooses games & some days we bake/craft/etc. 

 

Girls waiting on the school bus on such cold mornings!